Aug 21, 2015

Doom is coming to a PC near you in autumn 2016. That’s a basic conversion of the “spring 2016” release date that was announced hours ago at the QuakeCon introduction, and means the reimagining of the daddy of the firstperson shooter will hit sometime in March, April or May. Executive producer Marty Stratton took to the stage to share the release window, and to also talk about the beta and the upcoming alpha.

For those who pre-ordered Wolfenstein: The New Order, you probably noticed that the game included access to the Doom beta. While Stratton mentioned the beta won’t be ready until closer to release in 2016, he did mention a couple of interesting points. The first is that it’s a multiplayer beta, which means that story details will be preserved and The New Order pre-orderers will have a chance to try their hand at “fast-paced, arena-style multiplayer”. The other bit of news is that there will be a Doom alpha. Stratton said names will be randomly pulled from the pool of beta folks who pre-ordered The New Order so, if you’re one of those people, you might have the chance to play the Doom alpha later this year, or “soon” as Stratton put it.

Doom, in alpha form, is playable at QuakeCon on the show floor right now, so keep your eyes peeled on allpcgame-related publications for our thoughts once we’ve taken it for a spin. If it’s anything like the fantastic pace of Quake III—or, better still, the amazing speed of Rocket Arena 3—we’ll be spending some time in Quake Live prior to launch to improve reaction time that’s been dulled by the slower shooter experiences of Battlefield.